St Columb's College is a Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland. Since 2008, it has been a specialist school in mathematics. It is named after Saint Columba, the missionary monk from County Donegal who founded a monastery in the area. The college was originally built to educate young men into the priesthood, but now educates boys in a variety of disciplines.
St Columb's College was established in 1879 on Bishop Street (now the site of Lumen Christi College), but later moved to Buncrana Road in the suburbs of the city.
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Early history
St Columb's College was preceded by several failed attempts to create such an institution in Derry. Repeated but sporadic efforts were made to maintain a seminary for almost a century; at Clady, near Strabane, in the late eighteenth century, at Ferguson's Lane in Derry in the early nineteenth century and at Pump Street (first reference to St Columb's College as such) in the city from 1841 to 1864.
St Columb's finally opened its doors on 3 November 1879 with two priest teachers, Edward O'Brien and John Hassan. The school was considered to be quite large at the time and was expected to accommodate 20–30 boarders. The school quickly gained a reputation for academic achievement. On 18 September 1931 the Derry Journal listed St Columb's College's academic results. They were as follows:
2 university scholarships
3 exhibitions and prizes
6 calls in King's Scholarship exam (calls to teacher training)
2 pupil teacherships
8 regional committee scholarships
31 passed matriculation
26 passed Senior Leaving Cert. exam
52 passed Junior Leaving Cert. exam
The Education Act 1947 and expansion
One of the most notable alumni of St Columb's College, John Hume, noted, "When the history of St. Columb's College in this century is written, it will be clear that one of its major transformations, if not its major transformation, took place as a result of the Eleven Plus examination."
The Education Act 1947 provided for free secondary education to all throughout the United Kingdom. Entry to St. Columb's College, a grammar school, would be determined by one's performance in the 11-plus or Transfer Test. The immediate result was an explosion in pupil numbers, a shortfall in teaching staff and greater pressure on existing resources. In 1941 the student body numbered 263. By 1960 the number stood at 770 with a teaching staff of 35. In under twenty years the school's size had tripled. It was now clear that additional facilities would be needed.
In September 1973 St. Columb's College opened a new campus on the Buncrana Road in the city. The new site would cater for the senior years; its initial enrolment was of 900. The new building was designed by Frank Corr of Corr & McCormick and constructed by J Kennedy & Co. The total cost was £762,000. This figure does not include the £56,000 spent employing W & J McMonagle Ltd to construct the playing fields. The school consolidated at the Buncrana Road campus in 1997, and handed over the Bishop Street campus to Lumen Christi College.
Sport
The school is noted for alumni success in athletics, especially association football, Gaelic football, and basketball, with student teams competing in several national and even international events. St Columb's participated in the U13 School's World Cup in 2025, winning 3rd place.
Nobel Prize winners
The school claims two Nobel Prize laureates amongst its alumni. They are:
Seamus Heaney – Nobel Prize in Literature, 1995
John Hume – Nobel Peace Prize, 1998 (shared with David Trimble)
Notable former pupils
The college's former pupils association makes an annual award (the Alumnus Illustrissimus Award) to "a past-pupil who has achieved something of major significance or has made a considerable contribution in his own field".
Notable winners of the award are as follows:
Other alumni and names associated with St Columb's include:
The Boys of St Columb's
St Columb's featured in the film The Boys of St Columb's made by West Park Pictures and Maccana Teoranta for RTÉ. Following the lives of several Irish figures including Nobel laureates Seamus Heaney and John Hume who all attended the same small school in Derry in the 1950s and have helped transform modern Ireland. The Boys of St Columb's was released on DVD in early March 2010 by Digital Classics DVD.